Eating Local in December

Snow flurries nearly as light as air fell a few days ago and the sight started me to think whether or not it is possible to eat locally even in the winter months. The answer is: It depends.

According to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (a mouthful if there ever was one), there are farmer's markets throughout the state functioning nearly all the way up through Christmas.

In Winchester, the Freight Station Farmer's Market continues to offer milk and other dairy products, chicken and pork through December 21.

But what about fresh fruits and vegetables? The choices for these items during the colder months are definitely few and far between, but if the local fresh food buyer is willing to make a few small accommodations, there are ways.

First, think apples. Apples are one of the heartier fruits grown in Virginia, and can be processed in a variety of tasty ways. Remember, buying local doesn't mean buying right off the tree or harvested that morning. Turkey Knob, a company based in Timberville, VA, has an apple of the month club that does include the cold months Dec-March.

But if crunchy apples are not your thing, maybe apple butter is what you want. The White House brand, found in most of the large retail supermarkets and local stores, is a local company. Based in Winchester, White House makes cider, apple butter and apple sauce.

For the carnivores who want local, Virginia has that too, in the form of cattle and pigs raised on farms around the state. One farm, Hollin Farm, based in Delaplane, raises Angus beef that tastes better than the Angus burgers that McDonald's is selling, that's for sure. Pasture fed and no antibiotics, according to the company's marketing materials, buying locally raised beef is just a phone call or Internet click away.

Vegetables also are available on the Internet from the Virginia Organic Cooperative. With vehicles powered in part through bio-diesel, the certified organic Co-op -- and its partner the Virginia Green Grocer -- is a great way to get veggies in the winter months.

Recycling is Up in VA

A few days ago, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) released its 2009 annual report on recycling activity in the state and the news is good -- people and businesses in the Old Dominion continue to recycle more and more each year, but the increase is slow. According to the report, the recycling rate in the state was 38.6 percent, up from 38.5 percent in 2008, and up from 29.8 percent in 2004.

So while the numbers are trending upward, peeling back the report reveals that the more toxic products that might find their way into our soil and water are being recycled in greater numbers, but the easy products -- paper, metal and glass -- are being recycled less.

Specifically, the 2009 DEQ report showed that used oil, oil filters and anti-freeze and electronics (the stuff that's really bad if leached into soil and water) is being recycled. Details on how to recycle motor oil there are helpful tips on the American Petroleum Institute's website. (Never thought that I'd promote the API, but at least here it's doing good work.) It's the law in Virginia for shops that change motor oil to recycle it. A quick scan of your bill shows the cost, usually a few bucks.

This holiday season, as millions of us pop into and out of stores like Best Buy and Staples, we should remember that these retailers have drop-off recycling. Using them is about as easy as walking through a door and handing old electronics to an employee or dropping a phone into a bin inside the door.

Another great thing to consider at Christmas and other gift giving time, is cleaning out your old stuff in a responsible and recycling way to make room for all of the new goodies that you're hoping to get or just buying for yourself. A few months back I noted that Goodwill Industries might be called the first large-scale recycling organization. Drop off your stuff that is in reasonably good condition and it and other thrift stores will make it available to a person who could really use it.

Hey... I'm Walkin' Here

I stopped short and held up my hand, my eyes locked on those of the driver of the car fewer than 25 feet from me. He waved me on, but I waved with more force and he nodded and rolled his car past me and into the drive-thru line of McDonald's.

I took a breath, scanned the road again and fast-walked across the parking lot. I made it -- a pedestrian in Northern Virginia on Black Friday.

But Black Friday or not, I walk frequently walk around where I live and for much of the distance I'm not walking on a sidewalk or one of the supposedly numerous walking paths that criss-cross where I live. In fact, as a New Yorker (fresh back from a trip back on this Thanksgiving) I can say that Northern Virginia west of Reston Parkway is not too pedestrian friendly.

I live right in the middle of a holiday shopper's paradise. I've a mall with a Nordstrom's and Sears (high brow and low brow), a Best Buy, Target, Marshalls -- you get the idea. There's nothing that I or anyone could want to buy that isn't within a mile of each other. But you'd think that the air was toxic or the ground ready to swallow a person if a count of the number of people on foot was a measure of safety.

But then the lack of people walking is a sign of just how dangerous it is to literally step out of your house around here. I'm living in car-land. People take their cars to the grocery store and then walk to their vehicle only to drive it a few hundred yards to the coffee shop. No wonder we've an obesity epidemic: walking is dangerous.

When the driver and I exchanged hand signs earlier today, I was on my way back from the Dulles Town Center Mall. I had successfully crossed Route 7 and scampered down a little hill the ringed the Sunoco station on Pidgeon Hill Drive. I waited for a car to pass in the McD's parking lot, and then stepped out. Whoa! The driver spun in from the right nearly on two wheels, but not so fast that he couldn't stop or that I couldn't freeze like an eight year old boy playing a school-yard game.

From about two hundred yards from the light at Dulles Crossing until I reached the Safeway in the shopping plaza -- roughly half a mile -- I didn't step foot on a sidewalk. I hiked over grass walked on so frequently that a trail was visible until I reached Route 7, dashed across at the light and then hugged the shoulder until I reached the little hill at Sunoco.

Even here in a plaza with a McDonald's, Starbucks, Safeway and various strip-mall shops there were no sidewalks. Everyone drives. No one walks. Well, at least no one for more than a few feet. Around here, the only people who walk any distance whatsoever have a dog on a leash and stroll the paths, or appear to be foreign born and wear the work clothes of landscapers. No wonder if I'm walking it surprises drivers so much.

But I like walking and riding my bike (which is a whole other story, believe me!), but doing either one appears to be like holding a winning lottery ticket -- totally unexpected.

Something has to change. We have to somehow get out of our cars and on our feet in enough numbers so that a pedestrian is not the novelty that he is now and that he is safer.

I Do Proclaim!

If we stop to think just for a moment about all of the "Dedicated" days that we have either on the calendar, or that are running around unofficially, we'd see that Americans care about a lot of things, or some group wants us to care about its thing.

Huh? I'm talking about all the special days that we have. Not Mother's Day, Father's Day, Memorial Day and today -- Veteran's Day -- and a slew of other really important days upon which to reflect.

No, I'm talking about the rag-tag collection of days that "Cause X" wants us to reflect upon and that most of us just ignore if we even know that it exists.

One of those days is coming up on November 15: National Recycling Day. I heard about NRD through Earth911.com, a website that every card-carrying Green should take a look at every now and then.

But should we really care about National Recycling Day? Or should we treat it like it was... Oh, I don't know, maybe as important as National Kindergarten Day on April 21? I think kindergarten is a great thing. All that we really need to know to get through life and live it fully we learn in kindergarten. But do we need a day to remind us of that? Maybe.

But the days are not really around to remind us of anything. Truly important "days" are there to focus us. These "days" exist to force us to pause for a moment and realize what is really important: mothers, fathers, sacrifices by our servicemen and women.

So where would I put National Recycling Day? I'd put it on my list of important days, Class B. Just below the really important days because recycling, living green or in sync with our environment, appreciating and pausing for a moment to remember that the Earth we have is the only one that we're going to get is a good thing.

Soccer Trash

This morning a fog so thick hung over the Potomac River as it passed through Algonkian Park that I couldn't tell where the water's edge met the boat ramp. Only a few feet from the edge, I could barely see the trees on the Maryland side of the river.
Welcome to a great autumn morning in VA!

A steaming cup of coffee in a recyclable paper cup and the sound of kids playing soccer on the pitch (field for you Americans) a couple of hundred yards away is the best way to start the day -- any day. But while I had a recycle trash can to dispose of my cup only a few feet from the bench that faced the river, the dozens of kids and parents on the soccer field didn't have a trash can, let alone one designated for recycling. And that seems to be the norm for most of the fields that our kids play soccer around Northern VA.

Kind of stupid really. Each team designates a snack family to bring the half-time and end of game snacks for the players. Usually these snacks either come wrapped in plastic or are hand sorted into mini Baggies. Drinks are foil pouches or little cardboard juice boxes, and all of them either are packed up by the parents and brought back home or forgotten on the sides of the field.

Why can't there be more trash cans on the fields? It's not as if Loudoun County doesn't know that the fields are being used each weekend by hundreds of thirsty and hungry kids. A few parents join me every week and collect our kids' trash after the game, and invariably we end up gathering another team's garbage, too. Do the parents of the other teams think that the county sends a clean-up crew around, or is that they just don't care.

Probably a little of both. But I know one thing: if there were more trash cans at the fields, even the careless parents would realize that the plastic wrapper on the Capri Sun straw needs to be thrown away.

So Parks and Rec... how about a few more trash cans.

The New Plastic

For awhile now I've noticed that science seems to be catching up with the green movement when it comes to plastic. A few weeks ago, I was in my local Caribou Coffee sipping a coffee and surfing the web on the store's free wi-fi when I noticed something different about the store's bottled water.

Anyone who knows me is aware that I hate bottled water. Besides the ridiculous mark-up for the stuff, it comes in plastic bottles. Plastic bottles last a few days fewer than forever in our landfills and billions of them are taking up space in them right now.

But as I turned in disgust at seeing the bin of bottled water my brain processed the full details of what my eye saw. Caribou is selling plastic bottled water in bottles that are designed to biodegrade. Huh?

Like most of the chain coffee shops around the U.S., Caribou sells water with a cause. Its stores sell water that supports the Project 7 nonprofit. The bottles are supposed to be biodegradable and are manufactured by a company called Enso.

I'm not going to hang around and see if the bottles do in fact biodegrade, but given Project 7's broad commitment to good causes, and Caribou's support of nonprofit's too, I'm giving the bottles the benefit of the doubt.

Green Waste

Trash, like sports, is big business in the U.S. Consider Waste Management, one of the largest corporations involved in the trash business. Waste Management is so large that it has or has had sports marketing arrangements with NASCAR, the NFL (Rams) and the PGA Tour. All the while the corporation is polishing up its green credentials while trying to get more people to use their trash hauling and recycling services. Money, sports and trash.

Not that I'm not opposed to it at all. In fact, it was a trash can I saw recently in Arlington, VA that made me think about garbage and environmentalism.

I was on my way to the Rosslyn metro station when I did a double-take at a trash can with the ubiquitous logo. They're everywhere; that's not why I stopped, mouth slack ready to give my forehead a "V-8" slap. The trash can was different, but still a trash can. It was the words on the side that were special -- SOLAR.

Whoa! A solar powered trash can? Just what did a solar powered trash can do. Well, it didn't do what I thought it did. It didn't take empty, used up aluminum cans and pop out a fres

h, clean and shiny 12 oz Coke. Nope, not that. Actually, the trash can didn't do very much recycling at all. All it did was crush stuff. Give an aluminum pop can to a nine year old and he'll crush it like a bug. But it's not the crushing that made the can so cool, it was the solar power that juiced up the crunching.

Each one of us has passed by an overflowing garbage can at least once, including an overstuffed newspaper bin. Cities are cash strapped to pick up the garbage as it is, adding special recycling trips only adds to their burden. That's the smart idea behind the "Big Belly" solar powered trash compactor, produced by Massachusetts-based Seahorse Power Company.

According to the company's website, the solar powered trash compactors scrunch down garbage enabling the "cans" to hold as much as five times the waste of a similarly sized can. That the contraption is solar powered is a bonus, cutting the cost to local governments of running the machines through traditional electricity, and reduces trips by trucks that collect trash.

Later that day while riding on the Washington area subway, a billboard inside the railcar caught my eye. It

touted the another energy and waste deal -- ethanol. Ethanol can be made from corn or just about any other plant-based cellulosic substance. Corn is the number one source of ethanol in the U.S., but ethanol can be made from barley, wheat, sugar cane (as it is in Brazil in massive amount) and something called switchgrass.

Switchgrass is not your typical lawn grass; it's not even pretty to look at. But it sure is powerful. A Scientific American article points out that switchgrass can produce about 20 times more energy than ethanol. And it's cheap. Most of us think of it as garbage, something to be ripped up, torn up and planted over. Real trash. But there's value and more importantly, there's energy, in the ugly grass.

There's innovation going on all around us in an effort to reduce the negative effects of our standard of living on the environment that sustains us. And a day commuting showed me recently that how we handle our trash and think of energy sources might be signposts to a more sustainable future.

Biofuels

The unofficial end of summer is just a few weeks away with the coming of Labor Day, but those of us with swimming pools might squeeze a few more weeks of fun if the temperature stays north of ninety degrees. But when skimming pool or testing the ph balance, we might want to think about letting a little algae grow in the water -- someday the green stuff might be worth something.

But that someday remains a ways off. At least that's the thinking of scientists down at the University of Virginia who are looking at how reasonable it may be to make algae a source of biofuel energy, just as we use corn for fuel. According to a recent article from Discovery News, Lisa Colosi, an environmental and civil engineer at UVA, there are a lot of problems with algae as a biofuel, the most pressing of which is something called energy density.

Whether we're talking about ethanol or the green stuff growing at the bottom of your pool, a lot of that stuff takes up a lot of space. And the amount of energy available per gram from the biofuel just doesn't stack up alongside the juice we get from our dirtier sources -- coal and oil.

But should we just throw up our hands and say "Drill, baby drill" or "dig, baby, dig"?

No.

Investment in technology needs to continue both from the private sector and the government sector. If folks believe that the government has had no historical role in the development of our fossil fuel based industries, check out the stats from Grist.

Electric Cars, Electric Companies

General Motors announced today that in a few months its much talked about electric car, the Volt will be in dealer lots. The car is set to cost about $41,000 to start, but according to a clip from National Public Radio , a fully loaded Volt will set a person back about $45,000. While it's not clear how many of the Chevy dealers in Virginia will carry the Volt, but the Washington, DC-area which includes Northern Virginia is expected to have inventory.

The Volt is the American electric car, but the Japanese manufacturer, Nissan, also has

an electric car, the Leaf.

I don't know which name is sillier, the Volt or the Leaf. Both are attempts by marketing types to describe their cars, but neither has me singing their praises.

That said, both cars and the ones that hopefully will follow are a big step toward the greenhouse gas emissions from cars. Or is it. Demonstration cars are being delivered to area power companies, Dominion and Pepco, according to a GM press release.

Remember, the Leaf and the Volt run on electricity and most of the electricity from Dominion or Pepco is created from the burning of fossil fuels, especially coal.

While the experts are saying that owners of electric cars are likely to recharge during the night when power costs are cheapest, electric utilities in the long run will do pretty well if the electric car catches on.

In fact, electric utilities are doing pretty well right now, according to an article in Forbes. The overall stock market has been either in the tank or down for most of 2010, yet utilities have done remarkably well.

Here are some of the earnings numbers for our local power companies.

Dominion Power won't release earnings for a couple of days if their schedule holds, but in the first quarter ended March 31, the company earned $174 million, or 96 cents per share, higher than what the smart Wall Street analysts had anticipated.

American Electric Power also won't release earning for a few days. It's first quarter results were $365 million or 76 cents per share. American had some MBA-type issues in the period, and thus had lower earnings, although its revenue was higher.

Cooling off In and Near the James

The heat that's been baking much of the mid-Atlantic and northeast since the late spring has sent a lot of us to the beaches, lakes and rivers nearby to cool off. A few days ago I was in Richmond, VA and hiked along Belle's Island's trails and took a refreshing dip in the James River that encircles the island.

I wasn't alone. While there were probably more than fifty people hanging out on the rocks along the river's shore, a few folks stood out.

The first one is this guy who decided that it wouldn't be a good idea to bring

his iPad to the river, instead brought a book and just plopped down on a rock in the middle of the river flow and read. With the water level no higher than five feet, he had a great spot to stay cool and catch up on his summer reading list.

A little further downstream, where the river frothed across a smattering of rocks, a group of rafters tried to navigate the open spaces into the wider and flatter parts of the river. One group of rafters didn't quite make it through without a hitch, catching themselves on the rock. Above the roar of river I heard the expedition leader string a few choice curse words to the group. Eventually he had to get out of the raft and push them from the rocks, but not before another raft in the group slid past, waving at the stranded team.

But the real highlight of the afternoon was the group of kayakers. They paddled skillfully down the river and through the rapids, although one of them decided that the best way down was to just let the river do all of the work.

And while the river was the coolest place to be that hot July afternoon, the most fun was probably had by a group of girl scouts from Williamsburg, VA who made their first attempt at rock climbing.

Water Wisdom

The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality issued a state-wide drought watch as the Old Dominion suffers under one of the driest summers in years. The announcement comes as a shock to most of us here in Northern Virginia who remember how much snow fell only six months ago, shutting down the region. But while the snowfall made for some spectacularly green lawns and farms in the spring, the relentless heat that's covered much of the state has made the ground and the crops in it begin to shrivel, and sent the rest of us to cranking our A.C.

The plight of Virginia's farmers as they face what they have to consider to be a drought, no matter that the state hasn't made the official designation, brings to mind our own everyday efforts to conserve fresh water. When it comes to water there really is no substitute. OK, all of you joking beer or wine fans face reality: without water there's no beer and no grapes. So whether you drink the clear and pure stuff or the crisp and golden, or take it as coffee practically intravenously like me, we all need to keep water and its wise use top of mind.

But how to do that when in 99.99 percent of the time, water is just there -- right at the tap, on the supermarket shelves or in the five-gallon water cooler. What's common is taken for granted, even if it is the most precious thing on.

One way to begin to value water is to actually begin valuing it, or placing a real market price on the use of water. Most of us do that every day when we're in the convenience store and slap down about a buck for a one liter bottle of water. But when it comes to the water that flows into our homes, the water is a lot cheaper, but actually no less clean. In fact, the Washington Post reported last month that water that comes into our homes costs pennies. No wonder we waste so much of it.

I'm not saying that the water that comes into our homes should cost four bucks a gallon; that would give real meaning to the phrase "flushing your money down the toilet," but what I am saying is that if we're a country that believes in the power of the free market and the market prices that come with it, then we should begin applying those principles to water.

Doing so won't reverse Virginia's drought watch or flood the parched farms across the state, but thinking of ways to more wisely use the water we do have just might be the best thing that we can do on our own behalf in the long run. I for one don't want to live the song lyrics ... 'you never miss the water until the well runs dry.'

Independence

Nature is the true independent. If I were to choose a personality adjective for the environment, I think that I'd choose "independent." Nature doesn't need us, but we sure need it. We need its water, its air... a whole bunch of stuff from it, but this weekend we need its energy.

This July 4th holiday weekend, a lot of us still are watching and reading the news about the gusher of oil spewing off the Louisiana coast and flowing toward the shores of some of America's best beaches. The beaches where we go to take a break, exercise our right to "kick-back" and relax and do just about whatever we want because, "Hey, we're on vacation!"

But while we stroll along the beach, head to the park... whatever it is that we do, we ought to keep in mind that as independent we think we are, actually we're very dependent. When it comes to the environment, our top of the food chain, 'do it my way' kind of thinking really is a mirage. It's a mirage because we're living in Safetyland, a term coined as far as I can tell by the writer Laurence Gonzales in his book, "Why Smart People Do Stupid Things."

In a nutshell, Safetyland is where we live when we think that we've conquered our environment, molded it to our liking and bent it to our will, Safetyland. But really we've done something kind of stupid. How else to explain the ignorant comfort we have with the idea of drilling for oil one mile beneath the surface of the ocean? What if something goes wrong all the way down there? The answer: we really haven't a clue.

The environment doesn't want to be tamed by us. It wants to remain independent. Nature may lull us into a sense of calm and help us create our Safetyland, but eventually it reminds us that no matter how much we think we have it under our control, nature reminds us that it is really in control, that it is independent.

Realizing this can really shatter a person's view of what's safe. But running scared isn't the point. The point is not to do anything stupid in the meantime, anything stupid that could make things worse when nature decides to exercise its right to do what it wants to do, when it wants to do it, how it wants to... in short, when nature decides to declare its independence.

So, back to the BP oil disaster (does anyone call it a spill anymore?). Because of our dependence on oil, we allowed a company to drill about one mile under the water. If something goes wrong there's really not much that can be done about it before the disaster spreads. Stupid, but we were living in Safetyland.

Becoming less dependent on foreign oil is often cited as the reason for drilling off our shores, and recently because of the BP accident there have been increased calls for oil independence. Foreign oil dependence and oil dependence are both pretty bad in the long run and we need to declare independence from them one day.

Coming Together

The Virginia transportation secretary said a few days ago that the Old Dominion would commit $500 million over the next ten years to Metro, the Washington region’s subway system. The decision cleared the way for the Metro system to place an order for new equipment that is essential to the safe and efficient running of the Metro, the second largest subway network in the U.S. based on ridership. Metro also will increase fares this week, a signal that not all is well with the system, and a move that might push more riders into their cars.

At about the same time that the VA legislature -- the same legislature that has been starving Northern Virginia road and mass transit projects for years -- came to its Metro decision I was having a conversation with a person who I think is pretty knowledgeable about mass transit as it relates to housing.

We were talking about the meaning behind comments made by Housing and Urban Development Secretary (HUD), Shaun Donovan. Secretary Donovan noted that his agency, the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Energy Department (Energy) planned to work together in the months ahead in order to jump start the the development of more livable and greener communities.

Up to now, the three agencies worked separately and their work often didn't enable the development of greener communities. For example, few people would argue that America’s transportation policy has been automobile focused. Spending on highways in fiscal 2009 was about $40 billion while spending on transit (buses, trains) was about $10 billion.

Virginia’s decision and the federal government’s push to work together can mean a lot for us. For one thing, Metro might one day become the commuter service that it should be, that is a service that reaches more of us, offering us more choices for how to get back and forth not only to work, but to leisure events, too.

If the federal government’s small plans to date succeed, then maybe its efforts will grow and provide the spark that’s needed to transform our suburban neighborhoods into more connected communities. In the process, all of us might drive a little less, burn a little less fossil fuels, walk a little more and burn a little more calories -- together a win for the environment and our nationally expanding waistlines.

So, Now What?

The other night President Obama put the full force of his office into play and told all of us that he was royally ticked off with BP. The next day, BP found some spare change and pledged to put the $20 billion that it found into a fund that would pay the costs of the clean-up. Good thing, no doubt.

But with thousands of barrels of oil each day still spilling into the Gulf one mile beneath the surface, there is more at stake than the economic effect of this unprecedented disaster. So, now what?

Political observers are wondering if the disaster will energize the push to move more aggressively toward alternative energy sources that has been stalled on Capitol Hill. I think that if the one and only positive thing that comes from this debacle is that Congress begins to act like it wants to be a steward for the future of America and its citizens and not just a consumer of political chits and develop a real energy policy then that's great.

Because alternative energy needs some policy guidance. Business can't operate in a dark room, not knowing what whim it will bump into next. Already wind energy is struggling in this confusion, according to an article in Renewable Energy World.

But the wind sector may have gotten a shot in the arm. Virginia has reasonable potential to generate power through wind resources, according to analysis done by the Department of Energy. Of course there are problems with wind energy production. Some of the best locations in the state also are some of the most beautiful such as the Virginia Beach area and our mountain locations.

That said, Virginia did recently sign on to a memorandum of understanding (MOU) along with nine other east coast states to form the Atlantic Offshore Wind Energy Consortium. You go, Gov. McDonnell; now you're making sense.

But as anyone who has ever had the misfortune to be party to a MOU, you know that it makes for good PR, but not necessarily great working partnership that are truly effective. What has to happen now is residents of Virginia who want our state to lead or to at least walk real closely behind a leader must make their voices heard in Richmond and in their county governments. There's going to be stiff opposition to the placing of windmills in just about anywhere, let alone pristine places in the Commonwealth.

Maybe they don't have to be sited in our most beautiful places; maybe wind energy can be generated with less intrusion into our wild spaces. I don't know. But just blindly blocking construction through environmental NIMBYism is not going to help us get cleaner energy.

When a Fish is like a Canary

Most of us have heard the story of the canary in the coal mine. It goes something like this: before miners had the technology in place today to detect poisonous air as they dug deeper and deeper into the earth, miners carried a canary down with them. The thinking was that the canary would keel over before the men, an indication that the air was too poisonous to breathe. My guess is that the miners paid pretty close attention to the canary before it dropped dead.

Are we paying attention to the canaries in our environment?

Recently the Potomac River Conservancy released a report on the increasing rate of intersex among fish found in the Potomac and its various tributaries. The report prompted Virginia Representative Jim Moran to sponsor legislation aimed at reducing the presence of chemicals suspected of causing intersex in fish from entering our drinking water. As chairman of an important Congressional committee, Rep. Moran hopes to direct as much as $30 million to fixing this problem.

While fishers can certainly pull up a bunch of fish without this problem, the fact that the presence of intersex fish in what are supposed to be clean waters is increasing should worry all of us.

A lot of the blame can be placed right back at our own doorstep, or more accurately, our medicine cabinets. Improperly disposing of old medicine, vitamins and even in personal care products like shampoo.

More urgently, the supply of these chemicals also is coming from farm run-off resulting from pesticide use, or home lawn care pesticides. Importantly, the problem of household toxins entering our water is not confined to the Potomac and the Chesapeake watershed. An article posted to the National Geographic Society's blog notes that the problem is widespread throughout the U.S.

So the fish are our freshwater canaries. Paying attention to them will probably improve their health and lives and maybe our health and lives, too.

Definitely Not Overrated

A lot of things in this world are over-hyped, overblown and overrated. Everything from the latest America Idol to whoever is gracing the cover of the supermarket slick mags, we're surrounded by the overrated. But when it comes to Virginia, it's definitely not overrated.

According to a study by Statemaster.com, Virginia ranks five for Best States to Live. The only states ahead of it are either square fly-over states (Wyoming) or too cold for most of us (Minnesota, New Hampshire and Vermont).

Although I'm a transplant from what should be the number one state -- New York -- I have to admit that I've grown to appreciate Virginia for all that it has to offer, and for all that we should care about.

Virginia has one of America's great rivers in the Potomac, and some not too shabby river cousins in the James, Rappahannock and Shenandoah. Not too bad at all.

Virginia has some of the best national parks in the U.S. While almost by definition a national park is spectacular, Virginia has its fair share of great NPs, starting with the Shenandoah, home to mountains, waterfalls, lakes and more than 100 miles of the iconic Appalachian Trail.

Virginia has some of the best state colleges and universities in the U.S, and with them, several of the truly gorgeous green campuses. Ranked #5 by Forbes, the University of Virginia is one of Thomas Jefferson's greatest legacies. But by no means is UVA the only jewel in Virginia's state university crown. Virginia Tech, William and Mary and a number of other public universities rank high on the total value lists published by the major college ranking bodies.

Higher education, national parks, river systems, all of these things pale against the overall historical value of Virginia. Home to America's first permanent European settlement, Virginia can properly be called the genesis of America. Although its history is marred by slavery and some would claim amnesia or plain insensitivity when it comes to that horrible American past, Massachusetts and the Pilgrims just can't hold a candle to Virginia.

A Green Summer Vacation

The unofficial start of summer begins with the coming of Memorial Day weekend less than one week away. Although most of us will get three days to frolic and have the kind of fun that is only a dim memory after a brutal winter, we shouldn't forget why we have Memorial Day at all. With tens of thousands of servicemen and women in hostile territory, it's important that while we pack up the cooler, fire up the grill and set out on the open road, that we remember Memorial Day exists because people have died to protect our country and its core values.

OK, now for the fun stuff. There is a way to kick off summer vacation in an environmentally friendly way and add a little green to the celebration of the Red, White and Blue.

Six Tips For a Green Summer Vacation

1. Drive to your vacation. There's nothing like flying through the clouds to kick off a vacation. But if you're concerned about the environment, taking a plane is, mile-for-mile, more damaging to the environment. Virginia is practically at the center of the eastern seaboard and within a moderate day's drive to some spectacular vacation sites along the Atlantic coast like Myrtle Beach and the Outer Banks to the south, or New York City, the Catskills and Boston to the north. Heading west, after a half dozen hours or so of "are we there yet" from the kids, a family can enjoy Chicago, Memphis and the spectacular Smoky Mountains.

2. Don't use plastic bottles. While a 24-pack of water can be purchased for about six bucks from the local grocery store, using stainless steel bottles to chug water is better for the environment, albeit more pricey. And, they can be used the rest of the summer and even longer, making their cost compare favorably in the long run.

3. Run your car's air conditioner when on the highway. As crazy as it sounds since running the air burns more gas -- and who wants to burn more gas -- it's actually more efficient to drive highways with the windows up and the air on. More efficient driving tips can be found at Edmunds.com.

4. Pick a green hotel. Most of us have seen those silly little cards in the hotel asking us to defer having our sheets changed every day as a way to save on water and on energy used in the washing process. I can go with the same sheets for two days, but most people would rather not while on vacation. That's OK, because the real measure of an eco-hotel is its overall energy footprint. This site lists hotels that claim to be green, and why they think that they are. One sure way to green your hotel stay is to select a hotel near where you'll spend most of your time, enabling you to leave your car parked and to take public transportation. I'll never forget the first time my daughter rode the Disney World bus -- she had never been on a bus before and she was as wide-eyed as you could imagine.

5. Eat Local. OK, you're on vacation and you want to have great food -- even if your children would be content with fast food. Great food is local food. It's fresher and didn't cost the environment as much to get to your plate. Most restaurants that serve locally grown or organic food toot the fact on their websites. Use the hotel internet or your own device to check out the restaurants. This website can help. You'll enjoy the food more and have some bragging rights when you get back home.

6. Finally, prepare your home for vacation. Unplug all of the vampire electronic devices before you leave. Research shows that as much as five percent of the energy used in a home is drawn and wasted by these vampire devices, such as your TV, desktop computer and more. Unplugging these things will lower your month's electric bill while you're away. If you just can't imagine returning to a hot house when you get back from vacation -- get over it. Turn the AC off at home; you don't need to keep the walls cool.

Nuclear? I don't think so

With global warming pretty much an accepted fact, energy policymakers on both sides of the political spectrum are looking for non-carbon alternatives to creating electricity. And while increasing the use of nuclear energy should be a last resort for anyone who cares about the environment because of the risks associated with nuclear waste disposal, whether underground in New Mexico or anywhere else for that matter but the moon, nuclear is gaining ground.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Dominion Virginia Power (the company lighting my home) said that it had chosen a nuclear generator manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (yep, related to the car company). If completed, the reactor would be third nuclear reactor owned and operated by Dominion in Virginia. In all, nuclear energy accounted for 35 percent of the power generated in the state in 2007. To be fair, even if Dominion did move ahead with the plant, it wouldn't come online for at least five years.

Nevertheless, currently when combined with coal at 45 percent, four-fifths of the state's electricity is generated by either the dirtiest fuel known to man, or possibly the most dangerous. Forget explosions and meltdowns. There is no doubt that the waste from nuclear reactors remains poisonous for, oh... thousands of years!

Nuclear is getting a boost these days because it basically doesn't emit green house gases, and won't contribute to global warming. In fact, nuclear has such great benefits that an exhaustive list can be found right on the Nuclear Energy Institutes's website. The site is so nice, with its crystal clear blue sky background, fluffy clouds and pristine, pine encircled lakes.

No photos of Chernobyl or Three Mile Island on this site.

But before everyone thinks that I believe that nuclear is all bad, I don't. It has a place in our energy policy. My issue is the rapid pace of its ascendancy on the list of the non-carbon alternatives to energy production. According to one report, President Obama has more than $50 billion of federal money budgeted to support the construction of new nuclear power plants. I'm sure that some of that is on the radar of Dominion Power.

Fewer than 20 percent of total federal energy subsidies go to renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.

But Virginia is forging ahead in trying to increase the deployment of renewable energy, especially wind. Next month, the Virginia Wind Energy Collaborative is holding a two-day conference down at James Madison University. Registration is affordable at twenty bucks for one day, and thirty dollars for the two day event. People interested in knowing what's been going on inside Virginia with respect to wind power generation will hear an earful.

Meanwhile, if you care about more balanced energy policy and taxpayer subsidy going to projects that won't make you glow in the dark if they mess up, then sign one of the zillion petitions online and get our Congress and President to make better choices.

Today's The Day

Someone said a long time ago that, "today is the first day of the rest of your life." For those of us who have been hoping for movement in Congress on climate change, we're in the midst of realizing the true meaning of that aphorism.

Senator's Kerry and Lieberman introduced their bill this week and voices on the left and right found it inadequate. The loud voices over at Fox called the bill a global power grab, while at least one the equally strident advocate voice on the other side is angry that the bill doesn't go far enough.

Today's the day.

We're here and consuming energy to support a lifestyle that we like, and around the world billions-- yes, billions -- of other people have the hope and are praying that they can have the life that we have here in the U.S. But those aspirations come with costs, and really no matter how much the climate skeptics want us to hop on their bandwagon, glaciers that have advanced and receded across our global landscape for a long time, are now retreating and not recharging at rates enough to sustain them because where the glaciers are, and where the rest of us are, is here on Earth and it's getting warmer.

Today's the day.

The Kerry-Lieberman (or is it Lieberman-Kerry?) bill tries to make a difference, but like most things out of Washington, the difference is on the margins when what we need is bold action. I have the blessed fortune to telecommute for work a couple of days each week. Actually, if not for out-dated ideas about personnel management, I don't have to be in the office much at all. All of us need to think about climate change and associated energy efficiency as essential, and how our usual way of thinking needs to change for our own greater good.

The green jobs pablum that comes out of Washington and state capitals also needs to be bolder. The so-called cash-for-caulkers program will make homes more efficient and put some people to work, but the long-term effect of it will be small. A "GI-Bill", Marshall Plan, full-court press or some other catch phrase is needed to make a real difference here.

Dealing with climate change by making better energy source choices (wind and solar, and having the guts to build the transmission delivery capacity from generating location to end user) today and realizing that the choices are investments in the future and not just current accounting entries for today, is critical.

Carefully debating the Lieberman-Kerry bill -- without the sound-byte hyperbole, or a jaundiced eye on the next election -- also is necessary. The bill's far from perfect, but today it's a place to start.

Today's the day.

(Photo Credit: First photo: Reardon, USGS, 2001; Second Photo, Stebinger, Glacier National Park Archives, 1914

Fed's Announce Chesapeake Plan

Virginia is one of a half dozen states and the District of Columbia that can claim the Chesapeake Bay watershed. News May 12 from the Environmental Protection Agency about plans to clean up and restore the Bay to its natural beauty is welcome.

The important thing is to hold the plans of the EPA, the Department of Agriculture and other federal and state agencies that have pledged to improve the bay to the letter. A day before the announcement by Administrator Jackson, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation announced that it had settled a lawsuit against the EPA because it claimed that the government was slow to move on previous promises.

It's critically important to note that previous promises, commitments, etc., never really amounted to much. In fact, various federal administrations have been smiling and promising in front of cameras about restoring the bay since 1972 when the Clean Water Act was passed, and more specifically since 1983 when the governors of the watershed states of Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland met.

Depending on which advocacy group you ask, the results these past twenty years to clean and restore the Chesapeake are either dismal or abysmal.

The fact is, the Chesapeake Bay is a priceless natural resource, and the largest estuary system in the U.S. The streams and rivers that flow into it are the sources of fresh water for many residents in Virginia and Pennsylvania because the James, Potomac, Rappahannock and the Susquehanna. The Susquehanna provides about half of the fresh water that flows into the Chesapeake.

The bay and its sources are important. Period. Keeping them healthy is vital to the economy all along the Bay and its water sources.

Little Things; Paper Cups

This Saturday I'm running in a 5k near my house. The course will wind its way through a regional park and give the runners a chance to view some nature while they huff and puff. At about the two mile mark the tables will come out and lined up on each one will be rows of paper cups filled with water.

Ignoring for a moment how much water will be spilled and wasted on the ground (that's for another post), I wonder if the organizers of this race and other races realize the environmental effect of their events from all of these paper cups?

According to a post on the Mother Nature Network's website, about 58 BILLION paper cups are used each year. Not all of those are used by runners and walkers at the hundreds of events held each year, but enough of them are.

Why? Most runners use a reusable bottle of some kind when they're training. Why not use one during the race? A couple of years ago my wife and I entered a half-marathon in Richmond. We had reusable water bottles. Carrying the bottles the 13.1 miles didn't slow us down, and not having to jostle at the water table probably helped us by a minute or two.

Granted, to carry enough water to make it through a marathon could be difficult. But again, what do runners do when training? Some of the teams that sponsor runners have water stations along the training course, but even then, the runners frequently top of bottles held in their hands or attached to the waists.

Energy conservationists are making great strides in convincing consumers that doing little things -- swapping out incandescent bulbs, running dishwashers and washing machines while full instead of half-empty -- I think that it's time more of the races around Virginia and the country make a move and reduce the use of those little things, paper cups, and make a big difference on our environment.

Local

There are all kinds of movements popping up these days. One that I've been thinking a lot about lately is the push to "buy local." At its foundation, buy local folks encourage the purchase and enjoyment of fresh food, crafts and other things, that without looking at the labels you'd never know were grown or manufactured thousands of miles away. For example, I'm on my way to a conference in Phoenix and while packing glanced at the label of a shirt -- Bangladesh.

Bangladesh? According to the World Bank the country's about 56,000 square miles in total area, or about 10,000 square miles smaller than Florida. The country packs an amazing 162 million people in that space, or about half as many who live in the U.S. Oh, and its about 8,000 miles from Sterling, VA.

Definitely not local; and someone there made my shirt. A year or so ago, I heard about a book written by woman whose family tried not to buy anything made in China. While to me their quest was more of a lark, the problems they faced in finding things manufactured someplace else was tough, and illustrated a real truth: we get so much of our stuff from so far away.

But while trying to find things like tennis shoes or kids toys made locally may be difficult, this time of year there is no problem finding fresh produce and even meats. May 1 opens the Fairfax County Farmers Market, as well as other markets throughout Virginia.

Buying local produce has benefits across nearly all shades of green. For example, sustainabletable, a buy local advocate lists a range of environmental benefits from buying local, including boosts to the local economy, reduced pesticide use (and less runoff) and less fossil-based energy being used through shorter travel distances for your food.

Most people don't know this, but California is where most of our green stuff comes from (red stuff, too, like strawberries.) According to Beachcalifornia.com, ninety-nine percent of U.S. almonds, prunes, figs and walnuts come from California. I bought almonds a few days ago and never thought twice where they came from. A little closer than my Bangladesh shirt, but what's a few thousand miles once you get over 3,000?

Can I do without almonds? Sure. Should I? Don't know, but it certainly doesn't hurt to pause to think about the real cost of those almonds when I'm sprinkling them on my oatmeal -- or the cost of everything else that we buy -- on the environment .

Needs and Wants

There's a scene in one of the recent James Bond movies -- Quantum of Solace -- when James (played by David Craig) has his enemy right where he wants him. They're in the desert and the enemy has to get cross miles of open sand without any water. Bond flips the guy a quart of motor oil and says to his enemy that sooner or later he'll drink it, hoping that it will quench the aching thirst he'll surely feel beneath the hot sun of the Bolivian desert.

Bond's enemy is found dead and "M" or "Q" -- someone -- remarks that motor oil was found in the dead man's stomach.

With oil gushing from a pipe one mile beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico and a slick miles wide spreading across the sea to poison marine life along the U.S. gulf coast, I'm reminded of that scene from James Bond: oil or water; which is the most important?

In March, Virginia's governor answered the question when he urged the federal government to allow Virginia to sell offshore drilling rights enabling Virginia to become "The Energy Capital of the East Coast".

But that was before the giant gusher in the gulf coast. Surely, Gov. McDonnell would rethink his eagerness to possibly send an oil slick miles across wafting into the Chesapeake?

Nope. According to numerous news reports, the governor remains committed to offshore oil drilling. He thinks that we need the oil.

It's the jobs, you see. Offshore drilling will create thousands of jobs and bring in millions if not billions in new tax revenue. When you're the governor of a state facing at least a $4 billion revenue short-fall, you'd look everywhere -- even a mile under the ocean -- for new revenue. One thing, though; the drilling wouldn't begin for another few years, probably five, according to an Associated Press article.

And Mr. McDonnell will be long gone from the governor's mansion.

That's the thing with these kinds of plans: folks are never around to see them through. They're plans are potentially lethal legacies like land mines from wars long over. Oh, I'm not so naive to think that there shouldn't be long-range plans -- I have a 401k that I'd like to be around to spend.

But it just seems easy to make plans and promises of new oil tomorrow because people want the benefits of cheap oil today. If we drill and find more oil we'll be able to keep our fantasy alive -- that wanting to base our standard of living on a nonrenewable resource is OK. It's OK because those of us alive today won't have to worry about it, someone coming after us will. That's not long range planning; that's selfishness.

The oil that inexorably is flowing toward the Mississippi and southern U.S. coastline and threatening the livelihoods of fisherman who need the business from fish and shellfish to feed their families is incapable of caring that we want the oil to not reach the shore and the estuaries.

Virginia is a beautiful state and the more time that I spend exploring it, the more I appreciate its beauty. But Virginia's beauty will only remain if we keep it from being abused and polluted. It needs that. I want it.

See the recent story from the Washington Post.

Note. -- The Quantum of Solace plot revolves around a plan to take control of Bolivia's freshwater supply.

Shared Green

The other day I had reason to drive into Winchester, VA from my home in Sterling. I took Route 7 all the way. Climbing some of the hills heading west in my little four cylinder Kia Spectra sent the engine groaning and if I knew that I would be exaggerating I'd swear that a cyclist on one of the multi-thousand dollar carbon fiber jobs past me before I reached the crest. But I exaggerate -- I was passed by a lot of cars and beat up trucks.

But when I reached the top of every single one of those hills and could see the mountains in the distance, tree covered with low hanging clouds nearly touching their tops, I didn't care, and couldn't care that it was a struggle to get there. The view was great, and I had the opportunity to appreciate it.

I was on my way to the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank. The Food Bank distributes food in Loudoun, Fairfax and other counties. It even has a distribution center in Ashburn, VA. I guess the folks at the Blue Ridge didn't see the article a few weeks ago that said that Loudoun County was the richest county in the U.S. Numero Uno and top of the heap, according to no better measure of wealth than Forbes magazine.

There's a lot of green in Loudoun -- man made and natural.

And there's a lot of need, too. According to the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, in 2009 more than 145,000 different people were served by the food bank. The Winchester section that includes Loudoun serced more than 25,000 people. Looks like an average income of $110,000 per household isn't shared by everyone.

Sharing. It's one of those lessons we learn in kindergarten. If we don't share, sooner or later teachers call our parents and eventually we have no friends. Most of us learn that lesson pretty quickly. It's one reason that the Food Bank exists. While it receives some money from the state and taps into federal programs, the bulk of what it provides to the tens of thousands of people it helps is because people share.

I've been thinking about sharing a lot lately when I think of the outdoors. And while I know I'm being a curmudgeon or worse, I've had the feeling lately that the outdoor enthusiasts just don't want to share too much with the rest of us.

For example, I picked up a copy of Blue Ridge Outdoors, a free magazine that is available at Eastern Mountain Sports, REI and even Sports Authority. One of the articles, "Mapping the Secrets" talks about places hikers have found and whether or not those hikers should reveal the whereabouts of their new found treasures.

Come again? Keep a place secret; you mean, not share? That's like keeping the ball that bounces highest to yourself and 'thump-rolling' the flat, dead one to your buddy who sleeps on the kindergarten mat next to you.

The same sentiment sort of appears in the May issue of Outside. Anyone who knows me well also knows that I think Outside is great. I've been reading it since Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air. Forget The New Yorker and Harpers, the best writing in English is inside the covers of Outside.

But lately as I've been drawn to the outdoors more by Outside's articles, I've noticed a "clique" kind of atmosphere. Forget that I could count the number of African-American faces on two hands with fingers to spare (I'm talking years of issues, not just a single copy), I mean to say that its writers, letter writers/readers seem to want to extol the virtues of the outdoors, but don't want too many other people around. Just those already in the club.

The May issue's feature State Secrets (there's that non-sharing word again) advises readers how to get off the beaten path, avoid the crowds, while still enjoying jaw-dropping views and crazy, near death-defying adventures. Granted, getting away from it all is one of the joys of hiking. I tell my friends that being outside, hearing no sound but the breeze, birds and beat of my heart after a steep climb is where I feel God closest to me. But everyone should have the chance to experience that feeling or something close to it.

Routes to new places should be revealed and those of us who appreciate the outdoors should invite as many people to share these things with us as possible. It's what we learned how to do in kindergarten a long time ago.

Random Loudoun County Thoughts

As the title implies, this post doesn't have much of theme except that it deals with Loudoun County, VA.

With Earth Day less than 24 hours behind me, I decided to continue my commitment to getting out of my car as much as possible and walk up to the nearby Target. The stroll under a cloudless, deep blue sky was alongside a steady stream of cars whizzing by me. I had gotten about half-way to the store when a dear friend of mine rolled up alongside: "Walking anywhere in particular."

I told her where and she volunteered to take me

. I got in. Well at least I wasn't driving solo.

Inside Target I browsed the CD racks and remembered that I'd been meaning to write about how downloading music is good for the environment. I'll expand on this with a later post, suffice to say that if you're not buying your music when its wrapped in cellophane and a hard plastic case, you're doing your part for the environment, if not for your collection of music.

Anyway, since I was on lunch I had to quick step it out of there to get back to my computer and do some work.

Walking out I saw four bins beyond the check-out cashiers -- each one was marked for a different recyclable material. A few hurried minutes later I had the store manager in front of me and he told me that this particular Target had the bins in place for about three weeks now. (I didn't have the heart to tell him that I'd been to Wal-Mart twice in those three weeks).

So, all of you Loudoun County people who live near the Target off Cascades Parkway take note: you can recycle the plastic bottles

, cans and whatnot that I passed along the side of the road on my way to the store. That's right. Target will take your trash even from the outside. Read more about Target's green commitment.

A little down the road from Target is the field where my daughter practices soccer twice a week and where she occasionally has her games. Last weekend, empty coffee cup in hand I looked around for a trash can.

And looked. Nothing. Now this isn't some out of the way place; the field is part of the recreation area for a local elementary school. There's a collection of monkey bars, a small baseball field and the soccer field. But no trash can.

Every parent who has ever had a child play soccer knows that game day includes half-time snacks and then an end of game snack, not to mention water breaks during the game. But no trash cans to dispose of anything, let alone trash cans for recycling the

ubiquitous plastic water bottles.

My guess is that most of the 11 and 12 year old girls on my daughter's soccer team spent some of their time this week talking about Earth Day in school. Probably a good number of parents thought about it too, whether pro-environment or not. I wonder if this Saturday when all of us are walking back to our cars if we'll have made sure that the snack drinks, water bottles and everything else is thrown away someplace properly and not left on the grass.

Stay tuned.

National Geographic -- Water

The April 2010 issue of National Geographic opens the mind the way seeing your first dusty orange, red and purple sunset opens your eyes to a new kind of beauty; or how upon hearing Chopin for the first time opens your ears to your own heartbeat or the rhythms of wind.

The April issue of National Geographic causes sadness so deep that tears can't find their way to your eyes.

The April issue of National Geographic is about Water. In words and images that are amazing even for National Geographic, the magazine details how water represents holiness, life and our ultimate need. Nothing else matters if we don't have water. Indeed, as a Christian I know water to be holy because Jesus said, "But whosoever drinketh of the water that I will give them will never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."

Water, simple H2O -- probably the only chemical compound most of us can identify -- is anything but simple for hundreds of millions of people around the world. According to the magazine, the average person in the U.S. uses about 100 gallons of water at home each day. For Aylito Binayo, a woman at the center of one story and whose four year old son is left to watch his two younger brothers while she climbs down a mountain to draw and bring back 50 pounds of cloudy, muddy and bacteria-filled water, she makes due with fewer than three gallons of water each day. What she retrieves she shares with her children, her husband and the scrabble of farm and livestock.

I would say go out and buy the issue to read for yourself, but the better use of the $5.99 cover price is to make a donation to one of the many fresh water charities.

A friend of mine a few weeks ago told me that he could tell the difference between one bottled water and another. He doesn't lie, so I'm sure that he could. But (and here comes the real sermon), the better thing to do is not to buy bottled water and do this: find an empty plastic bottle in the house, car, office -- somewhere; cut off the top and make a wide opening; every time the thought of buying bottled water comes up, toss a quarter into the opening.

Even at only once a week, after a year the bottle will have thirteen dollars in it. Thirteen dollars is about half the cost of clean water for life for a person in the developing world, according to Water.org.

I haven't yet contributed to water.org. My personal water charity is blueplanetrun.org, but I'm going to find some spare change in couch, the glove compartment of my car -- maybe even a few pennies in the bottom of an old jewelry box.

Not much to be sure, but it doesn't take much to make a real difference. Plus, if you really want to read the issue, I'll loan you mine.

A Couple of weeks before Earth Day

When you think about it, every day really is Earth Day. We're here on Earth (Terra for the sci-fi fans) every single day, but like a lot of things we profess to love, we take the Earth for granted a lot of times.

But one day every year, we're reminded by celebrations, speeches, TV commercials, and if we're fortunate -- by our friends.

A list of Earth Day activities near Virginia and Washington, D.C. can be found on the Earth Day Network website.

But just like when you realize that you've been taking someone that you love for granted, and then turn around and do something nice for them, it's the same for Earth Day -- you don't need a list of planned activities. You can show your care by doing something true, and from your heart for the Earth.

Whether it's choosing not to use plastic straws when drinking soda in a restaurant; remembering the canvas bag your green friend gave you to use when grocery shopping; or electing not to water the lawn that day, there are countless ways to show appreciation for the Earth without joining a worldwide movement. You probably have to drive a car to those events anyway, and how Earth friendly is that, even in a hybrid?

The Nickel Deposit

The other day I was out on the W&OD trail for a six mile walk. I started at the 23.5 marker at Dominion Station in Sterling and headed east. The sky was clear and the air a bit warm and I took it a bit slow. Nothing much was on my mind except getting the miles in and keeping the weight off -- I'd had a few chocolate bars the previous days, breaking my two per week target. But if you don't eat chocolate, why live, right?

I dashed across Sterling Blvd ahead of cars going way to fast. When I slowed at the little rise on the other side I saw the empty plastic water bottle. A few yards down the trail I saw another one. And another one. Then a energy drink can and a Gatorade bottle.

The trail of them kept going. I started to count them and think back to when I was a kid, probably 10 or 11 years old. In New York back in the 1970s the city government had instituted a five cent deposit on bottles and cans. Turn the stuff in and you got a nickel each. Turn in twenty bottles and cans and a kid whose allowance was just 35 cents a week could walk away with a dollar. Turn in more, and earn more.

Guess what I did. I hunted bottles and cans with a friend of mine like crazy. And not just me; a whole bunch of people collected bottles and cans for the deposit and you know what? The streets of Staten Island (the part of NYC where I lived) didn't have too many cans or bottles in the gutters and bushes. Like the ol' prospector Yosemite Sam told Bugs Bunny: "There's gold in them thar hills." Gold for me was a pile of Coke and Pepsi cans and soda bottles.

There's no deposit on bottles and cans in Virginia, D.C. or in Maryland. For a quick review of why check out this column by Marc Fisher in The Washington Post.

A couple of summers ago, I was vacationing with my family in Ocean City, MD. I had a great time in the water, on the beach and the boardwalk. I don't know how many water bottles and beer cans I picked up on the beach that day and carried the endless distance of about 40 feet to the blue barrel trash cans, but I carried more than one. I wonder if a deposit law was in effect in Maryland that fewer bottles and cans would be on the beach, and in the ocean.

I also remember seeing a few guys who looked homeless while in Ocean City. Where they stayed is anyone's guess. How they survived is also anyone's guess. I'm pretty sure that if Maryland had a bottle deposit law that these guys would have combed the beach like a kid looking for the perfect shell. We'd have had a cleaner beach and a healthier ocean.

Five cents each. How much could it be? That brings me back to the W&OD. I counted 215 bottles and cans on my six mile round trip. That would be $10.75. If I were 12 years old in 1974 that would have been enough money for practically a summer's worth of chocolate milk shakes, a few movies -- something, a lot of somethings.

Or for a person without income, living on the street, panhandling for money for food, $10.75 would buy a pretty long list of groceries:

1 pound box of spaghetti -- $1.00

1 pound of bread (generic) $1.49

4 cans of tuna fish $4.00

1 gallon of milk 3.29

1 Hershey bar (Wal-Mart) 50 cents

Quite a nutritious shopping list (candy bar notwithstanding, but hey, it's chocolate) from a nickel deposit.

Not to mention the increased beauty of the W&OD, the Ocean City beach, and just about every other place we'd like to keep nice.